The Old War
by Golden Lark
Summary: Fate is taken down hard during an urgent assignment, and Nanoha is less than pleased. Chapter 7 up: Vita blows her top, Signum goes white-hot, Nanoha gives someone the eye, Shamal takes a break, and I make a single terrible pun here: it's an up thing.
1. Fateovision

The Old War

(revision 1.0, proofread once, notes appended, successfully uploaded)

Chapter One: Fate-o-Vision

-

_EXPORTING LOG_

_MISSION 345-112B-09, DATE XX-XX-XXXX_

_KEYWORDS: TREASON ENF. HARLAOWN, FATE T. LOGIA 213905-W-139 LOGIA RECOVERY TEAM 7 5th SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIT TOP SECRET … (EXCESS KEYS OMITTED)_

_BEGIN PLAYBACK_

-

"_Commander Jeryich?"_

"_GODS!" Erst Jeryich nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun, and stopped himself from reaching for his sidearm. "Enforcer," he puffed, "glad to see you made it ok. This is a mess."_

_Fate T. Harlaown nodded. Jeryich quickly pulled together his compsure and went on. "As I'm sure you read, the 5th SOU just got dropped here a bit before you. As I'm also sure you know, we don't get dropped for fun friendly family camping trips. The word of the day is Treason. One of the Logia research and extraction teams found something, and decided they didn't want to send it home according to procedure. I am the man given the extraordinarily unpleasant duty of killing them all, while trying not to trigger the collapse of the multiverse due to whatever cosmic horror they've unleashed."_

_Fate nodded again. "You, ma'am, apparently get to fight the cosmic horror. Fortunately for both of us, I am hereby ordered to turn over command of this operation to you. As I've heard, you have a knack for avoiding fatalities in situations like this. The 5th SOU is yours, ma'am."_

"_Have you already established a perimeter?" she asked as they walked out of the command tent._

"_Yes'm. No one has gone in or out, a barrier is being maintained and outside the building the only contacts are some very frustrated birds. Inside, it's a bit more hot. We've been getting incredible readings from whatever they've set up in the basement, and whatever is being channeled or cast is apparently reaching an apex. We've picked up a few of them barricading the doors and windows on the first floor. "_

"_Their arms?" _

"_That's the messy part, ma'am;" Jeryich gulped, "they are totally unarmed. A bunch of geeks in lab coats. No devices, no mage combat-ranked above E, no weapons of any kind. They have effectively signed their death warrants in their birthday suits. This goes extraordinarily well, we put them down quickly and ship them home for interrogation. But in my experience . . ." he trailed off._

"_Men who oppose the TSAB over Lost Logia are never unarmed," she finished. "I understand, Commander. We'll do this by the book. Roof, windows, and blow open the front door. Shoot on sight; I don't even want to give them an opportunity to convince us to use more force. Once floors 1-5 are secure, we'll deploy a secondary barrier supported by an internal device in the center of floor 1, and then we'll storm the basement. At that time, I'll take point."_

"_Point, ma'am?"_

"_Are you familiar with the Limiter system, Commander?"_

"_Something about keeping the best mages from blowing the world up?"_

_Fate faintly smirked. " . . . Indeed. For the full duration of this mission, I have been granted full release, no restrictions."_

"_Is that unusual?"_

"_I've never had it open for longer than two hours straight since the day it was first applied."_

_Jeyrich stopped, paled slightly, and considered. His next words came out in the cold tone of a man about to send soldiers to their deaths. _

"_Permission to speak freely, ma'am."_

"_Always."_

"_What the hell did they find?"_

_Fate turned to him. She held his gaze for a moment, and he noticed a crack in her impassive façade. In a flash, she donned her Barrier Jacket. _

"_They didn't tell me." Bardiche manifested in her hand, and she began walking to the research facility. "They **never** tell me."_

_-_

_Phase one went as planned, but for one small hitch. They captured two researchers on the first floor, and after disabling them, were unable to revive them. A quick scan showed that their linker cores were exhausted, as if they had been casting until they were about to fall over. They'd be fine, but were in no condition to talk._

_Jeyrich spat. "So much for a gathering any intel. Shall we lower our output to compensate?"_

"_Affirmative. However, don't hesitate to switch back at the slightest sign of resistance. I only want to talk to the first one we meet, then the leader. Everyone else can sleep for a few days. _

_A radio chirped. _

"_Sir, camp reports that the reading will be reaching their predicted apex in 300 seconds or less," reported a soldier._

"_Thank you, corporal. Enforcer?"_

"_New plan: I'll head directly for the power reading. Spread out and clear behind me."_

_Fate dashed down the stairwell into the lower levels. She hit level B5, bumped the door open, and saw two more researchers sitting in the hallway. One looked up at her, turned, and inhaled to yell a warning. He got zapped. The second one opened his mouth, but stopped short when he saw Fate's electricity._

"_Ahaha, of all the ways for this to end, they had to send a lightning mage. Ha ha ha, HAHAHA~!" He started laughing madly. Fate hesitated a moment, then zapped him too. Charging ahead, she came to the central room. Inside, she saw-_

_A giant ritual-class spell sigil on the floor. A yellow Belkan triangle, with a man at each corner. In the center floated a black sphere about the size of a bowling ball. It was covered in pulsating blue labyrinthine lines. Energy arced from the sigil to the ball and back again. The three men channeling paid her no heed, but the two manning consoles to either side spun around and made sounds of dismay. They began to charge her, and she brought up Bardiche. The left console showed a countdown._

_00:05_

_00:04_

_Fate blinked, and cast two rapid spells. _

"_PHOTON LANCER. DEFENSER," Bardiche intoned._

_A barrier surrounded Fate and her would-be assailants. Bolts of power blasted the two consoles, and the explosions shook the room. _

"_RECOVERY." _

_Fate came to, coughed, and sat up. She shook her head, and couldn't stop the ringing sound. __Then she remembered what she was doing. _That shouldn't have been so powerful. How much energy were they routing? _ The smoke cleared slightly._

_In the center of the room, the three casters were down and bleeding. They were all groaning in various degrees of pain, so none had died. Yet. The two consoles were destroyed, with intense electrical fires flaring brightly in both. The Logia . . ._

_The Logia flared with a blue light, then fell to the ground. It bounced, twice, and rolled away. Where it had been floating was . . . a man. A naked man, in the fetal position. Before Fate could make out any details, the man dropped to the ground and landed in a crouch. He stood, looking around in apparent confusion, then noticed the injured men around him. He muttered something inaudible and a suit of armor manifested around him. Or was it a barrier jacket? It definitely had something like a helmet covering his face now. There was too much smoke to see. Fate jumped as a hand grabbed her leg._

"_You stopped us. You let it out. You've killed us all!" gasped the researcher._

_The figure in black turned to them and stared. Fate got to her feet slowly. The figure asked something, but Fate was still having trouble hearing. Or was she? She had just heard the researcher fine . . . it was as if he was speaking another language. _

_Of course he was! But why wasn't it auto translating? Fate sent a telepathic query._

Can you understand this?_ She almost doubled over from the intensity of the response._

MIND/SPEECH ? - WHERE/I - FACTION/YOU

I am Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. We are on Non-Administrated World 32, Mo-

"_It came from in here! Move in!" Jeyrich's voice echoed from radios in the hall. Simultaneously, Bardiche pulsed twice._

"_SIR. OXYGEN LEVELS DROPPING."_

_At this the Logia-man snapped his full attention to Bardiche. He looked back at Fate, and let out a animalistic growl._

"_SCHMIDT!"_

_He charged forward, and in a flash of indigo light, the playback ends._

-

The briefing room was silent.

Nanoha, Hayate, and the Wolkenritter sat for a few seconds after Bardiche's playback ended. The first to speak was Vita.

"Oy, did he say what I think he did?"

"Never mind that, I don't believe Testarossa went down that easy," Signum added.

Shamal glanced at each of them, and shut her eyes. "The playback ended because Bardiche was disabled. We don't know how much longer the fight went on after that. At least she's going to be fine- just not for a week or two. Honestly, considering how quickly she was defeated, he could have done far worse."

Vita leaned back in her chair. "Still, why did they release her limiter just for that guy? Usually people have to die before the brass gets that serious. Or worlds ending, or –"

Zafira chuckled. "Or someone failing to warn Vita that Hayate is on an away mission more than a day in advance."

"HEY, take that back you fleaaAUGH!" Vita fell backwards and landed unceremoniously on her neck. "Wait, where's Nanoha? Hayate, did you see her leave?"

"Huh, what?" Hayate snapped out of her thoughts, "Oh, Nanoha . . . no. I was too busy thinking about how serious this could be. As happy as I am to be working with everyone again, I'm way too aware how much we're disliked up top to be entirely carefree. It took Carim's prophecy to start Riot Force 6, and this time we're all tossed together as soon as a particular Logia's registration number comes up? I don't like it. And the fact that Fate is safe . . . don't get me wrong, but it bugs me. We aren't being given all the information. Even Fate picked up on that. But that's just it. They don't trust us S+ and higher mage prodigies. They don't even seem want us all on the same planet for more than a few hours at a time these days." She quickly glanced sideways and gritted her teeth, "and they have installed the loveliest glass ceilings at headquarters since the last time an Earth-born mage started climbing the ranks there." She resumed her normal expression.

She turned to the door Nanoha had vanished through. "Shamal, tell me again why we're not allowed to visit Fate?"

The healer beagn to sweat slightly, "Ah, well, it's sort of complicated, Mistress."

"Cut the Mistress crap." Hayate shot. "It makes me feel old."

Signum shrugged, "I don't think anyone's in the mood for company if they lose a fight that badly. I don't know how serious it got after Bardiche cut out, but being spared after such a defeat could be construed as a fatal insult-" she noticed everyone looking at her, coughed, and continued, "but Testarossa isn't as old fashioned as I am. Shamal, you were saying?"

"Ah, her honor is probably intact. Her pride is debatable, but we've lived long enough to sort of gloss over individual defeats. Her condition is sort of unique in my experience, and it pains me to say that any outcome that would have allowed it to happen would have just as easily allowed a _coup de grace_. "

Vita sniffed and dusted herself off. "This is Fate. She faced US down once without blinking. It's not like she fell over and wet herself. What's the big deal?"

Shamal flinched, and sighed. "I guess it needs to be said. OK, Vita imagine this. You know the linker core is in the body, right?"

"Right." Vita closed her eyes.

"Imagine the linker core as a quiet and clear lake in the middle of a beautiful forest."

"Got it."

"Now imagine Blaster-mode Nanoha floating in the sky and firing a Zenryoku Zenkai Starlight Breaker straight down into this lake."

Vita made an uncomfortable noise. "It can't be that . . . wait. That would just make a big splash. A huge splash even. But in the end just a big mess."

"Precisely. Her mana has been scrambled all through her body. In battle, it's a completely pointless move; if you can to that to someone you could instead more easily capture or kill them outright. The symptoms are not unlike classic amnesia, but with a catch."

Signum frowned. "Amnesia seems like a pretty big catch."

"Well, classic amnesia strips you of your identity, your memories, your personal knowledge, and any skills you haven't committed to reflex or instinct. It leaves your language facilities, motor skills, and general social skills intact. This surge did the opposite."

Signum paled. "Oh no."

Zafira's ears folded back, and Hayate kneeled down next to him and hugged him. "Well, she remembers us, right? I don't see wha-" she tilted her head, and continued, "Oh dear. Okay, I understand now."

Vita glanced around in confusion. "Hey, what am I missing? Okay, so she can remember us and everything, and so the opposite is she can't . . . talk? Or walk? Or . . ." She trailed off and her face went as red as her armor. "Oh no. I'm an idiot." She shot lethal glances to everyone in the room. "None of you quotes me. It never happened. Anyone that has a problem with that will talk to Eisen."

Signum nodded. "As far as I'm concerned she's unconscious for the next couple weeks. In accordance with her wishes, I'll see her then. In the meantime, we have a mission to prepare for." She left the room.

"So, Shamal, in about two weeks she's all better? The lake fills back up?" Hayate asked.

"Yes. It might be sooner, if she chooses to simply drain her linker core almost to empty."

"But she can't remember her magic right now, and Bardiche is damaged. And even if she did that she'd still be weakened and unfit for combat."

"Exactly. But to her that might be preferable to even a single day more of this. Still, we are probably going to have to wait. Nanoha will be . . . oh no. This isn't good." Shamal blinked.

"Nanoha . . . oh, we're idiots. I know exactly where she went, don't I?" Hayate let out a sigh. "Heaven help anyone who tries to stop her . . ." She stood up. "It's been a while since I've been deployed to the field. I'm going to make sure the rest of my department is in order before I head to the ship. We'll discuss this further on the way there." She stood and left.

* * *

Author's notes:

So the first time I try to get something up on it's flinging errors, and I had no idea it was their end and not mine. Finally I get this up. Phew.

Anyways, this chapter I was going for scene setting, and less for metafictional accuracy; for example I don't know what appropriate rank the normal CO of a deployed special ops-ish unit would be, and 'Commander' sounded OK. This story for me is going to be an exercise in established character reactions; I'm not going to try for heart rending drama, but more "OK, if THIS happens, can I imagine how everyone might react, and if something begins to stray from established canon, can I persuasively justify it? More importantly, can I aim for those and stay interesting?"

I spent more time trying to get this online than I did writing it. I can see why stuff gets updated infrequently. o_O Errors, contracts to sign, captchas to pass, uggh. I also have to get used to the auto-reformatting. Well, we'll see how it goes. Enjoy the ride.


	2. Waking Nightmare

The Old War

Chapter 2: Waking Nightmare

v1.0, initial publication. 3/4/2010 3:28AM

-

"SCHMIDT!"

Fate didn't so much parry the unarmed attack as fail to realize he was trying to grab Bardiche. As such, one pulse of indigo light later, she was suddenly on her knees, then on the ground. She was aware of some words being said, some footsteps, and another bright pulse of indigo light. Then she was flipped over on her back.

The soldier said something, urgency and concern in his voice. Fate tried to say she was ok, but was startled when a wail came out of her mouth instead. When she tried to cover her mouth with her hand, she realized she wasn't moving correctly. Her normal on-duty cool quickly bent, then broke, as she began to thrash around randomly with no control. After the soldier and his squadmates held her down, she saw Jeyrich's face. She tried to speak again, and was horrified by the sound she made. Her face must have revealed something, because he blanched, turned to the side, said something, and then pressed his hand on her forehead. She thought he said something like an apology, and the world went white.

-

She woke up to the harshly lit hospital room with a start. To her, it was more like a vaguely familiar place. On some level she knew she was safe, but she began to panic as soon as she remembered she wasn't okay. She was in a . . . on a . . . No words came. Just her emotions, and her senses. Before she could stop herself, she wailed again.

"Well, good morning to you too," said Shamal.

Fate heard the voice, recognized the voice, understood the tone, and calmed down a bit. Her bed tilted up, and Shamal reached over and slipped something onto her head. She then left Fate's field of vision, and the light went out.

"This should do the trick. Mild sensory deprivation for focus, restraints for countering involuntary motion, and upright posture for thinking straight. Normally we don't use these for human to human communication, but in your case it'll be better than standard telepathy for the time being. There we go, it's on. Now I just have to attune to . . ."

_Query?_

_PANIC DARKNESS PANIC wait calm/water/whole?_

_Joy! Greeting, warmth, hug. _

_Query! PANIC! Query!_

_Sickness. Patience. Wellness._

_Query PANIC Query!_

_Sickness. Patience. Wellness. ABSOLUTE CONVICTION._

_! . . . Calm. Patience. Wellness._

_Affirmation. . . ! Unexpected._

"Shamal! Is Fate awake? I got here as soon as I could. I thought I heard you . . ."

"Nanoha, you should know better than to barge into a hospital room outside visiting hours. Shame on you," chided Shamal.

"Nyahaha."

"Well, she's awake, but can't talk right now, and, well, you can't use telepathy either. At least not normally."

"Oh. I was wondering why she wasn't responding to our normal link."

"She is also incapable of magic at the moment. You'll have to direct . . . um, your emotions at this device here to get through. You'll have to be careful though, because- oh!"

_Tentative greeting?_

_LOVE/TRUST/ADORE!_

Nanoha reeled back a bit. "Whoa. This thing has some kick."

"It's not the machine, it's Fate. You have to control your emotions very carefully to use it properly. Fate is a quiet girl by nature, and usually quiet people have more intense feelings. Don't forget that technically you're reading part of her that she never shows to anyone else. She's in no condition right now to hold back, and you need to be care-"

_Enthusiastic greeting!_

_LOVE/TRUST/ADORE! LOVE/TRUST/ADORE!_

_Mutual enthusiasm! Feeling/Inquiry?_

_Alive. Painless. Darkness._

_Darkness? Light!_

Nanoha stepped across the dim hospital room in one swift motion and opened the curtain that was closed around Fate's bed. Shamal jumped up to stop her, and froze with her hand outreached.

_Love/trust/adore happiness beauty refreshment greeting!_

_Horror, disgust, nausea_

…_query (sight) Query (sight) QUERY (SIGHT)_

And for a moment, Fate was Nanoha. She was standing, holding the curtain, looking down on her friend who was bodily restrained to the bed, from ankles to neck. She was braced such that she couldn't even turn her head. She was gagged so she wouldn't bite her tongue. Various tubes went to various places. The smell of someone who was unable to get out of a hospital bed wafted out. But all that unkemptness was secondary to the half-crazed look of happiness she saw on her own face, and the fact that the very sight of her inspired such feelings . . . she screamed "No!"

Or at least, tried to. Another wail.

_Fear, concern, reassurance!_

_SHAME SHAME SHAME_

_Apology, resolve, -will to help-_

_SHAME SHAME SHAME LEAVE_

_Reassurance, Reassurance._

_SHAME leave SHAME LEAVE SHAME __**LEAVE **_**HORROR DISGUST NAUSEA **_**LEAVE**_

_Timid acknowledgment  
_

Nanoha stepped backwards, and turned to the door. "Shamal, I'm sorry about that."

"You should be. I tried to warn you."

"Is there anything I can . . ?"

"No, there is not. She will be fine in about two weeks. She will gradually regain use of her body and magic and language. The debriefing will be in an hour, and we should see what Bardiche recorded. "

"Okay. I understand," she turned to the Knight of the Lake and smiled, "I trust you."

Shamal's heart skipped a beat. "Thank you. I'll do my best." She watched as Nanoha almost ran from the room. She refused to think any harder about that smile than she had no. Sighing, she re-attuned herself to the device and braced-

_SHAME REGRET SHAME REGRET SHAME REGRET_

Shamal shook her head. It was going to be a long sixty minutes.

-

Fate eventually calmed down enough for Shamal to teach her how to page for help. A series of specific emotions in a row would trigger the device to contact Klarerwind. After that she was alone, and sunk into her thoughts. She tried not to think about things that had happened today, and decided to sleep. As she emptied her mind, she became aware of a small light in her consciousness. She cradled it and cried.

-

Across time and space, in the TSAB's Infinity Library, Arf dropped a book.


	3. Love unflinching that cannot lie

The Old War

Chapter 3: Love unflinching that cannot lie –

v1.00, published 3/4/2010 8:52PM

-

Yuuno looked up as Arf entered his office. She marched up to his desk and hoisted herself up on her arms to come up to his eye level.

"Yuuno. I need a – no, I need two big favors."

Yuuno wondered how many boxes of premium biscuits he could afford with his pocket money, and began to sweat. "Sure, anything."

"I need you to hit me with your best sleep spell and take me to Fate, wherever she is. Right now."

Yuuno blinked. "I assume there's trouble, but . . . why the sleep spell?"

Arf jumped up and lunged forward while morphing into her puppy form. She growled. "Because right now I don't think I could stop myself from biting out the throat of the first person to get in my way."

Yuuno gulped. "Indeed. Well then, I am at your service." He held out his hand, and Arf lifted a paw to shake. On contact, she lost consciousness. The small spell circle that had formed behind Yuuno's back vanished. "Huh, it actually worked." He scooped up the red furball and draped her around his neck. "Time for a bit of detective work."

-

Shamal was studying screens in Fate's room when the knocking happened. Frowning, she stood up. "I believe I made it clear that Ms. Harlaown is having no visitors right now." She went to the door. "She is in no condition to be seen, no matter how badly you want to wish her well." She slid the door open.

"GrrrrghrghrghrghRGGH." Adult-form Arf stared her down, teeth bared.

"Oh. Come on in." She turned and left the door open behind her.

Arf blinked. "Wait, I thought you said no visitors. You don't give up that easy."

"You're not a visitor. You're a part of her." She sat down and faced Arf matter-of-factly. "Right?"

Arf blushed.

"Anyway, you're the only way we're going to get any more information about what happened. I was going to call you as soon I finished things here, but it looks like you were already on your way before I even considered it."

"She . . ." Arf took a breath, "She isn't the type to cry. Not during her . . . early childhood, not after. Any time I thought she would, when I hoped she would, she'd just hug me instead. Two days ago, I felt her trying to, and failing. I had Yuuno knock me out and bring me here."

Shamal nodded sagely. "Well, I'd explain everything, but somehow I get the feeling you'll pull more directly from her when she wakes up. For now I'll just say that her linker core got jostled, her magical energy is scrambled, and it will all settle down by itself in about twelve more days, if we leave it alone. In the meantime she can't use magic, words, or her own body."

"I'll share her memories and interpret for you. As an added service, I'll translate."

"Umm, that might be harder than it sounds."

"Pssh. Humans put too much stock into 'words.' Familiars get the free human sentience template added on our ascension, _and _we get to keep our old language-free interpretation of the universe too." She gave a fanged grin. "Ask Zaphira, I'm sure he'll say you all talk too much."

Shamal pouted. "Hey, you tend to talk more than any of us!"

Arf smiled again. "I talk more because she doesn't. I get to see beyond her face, her silence, and her words. I am expressive when she can't be, I am angry when she won't be, I fight when she shouldn't be." She sighed. "It's odd to say it like this, but the thing that makes me happier than anything else is knowing she doesn't need me."

"As a doctor, I can understand that."

"And, she's waking up. " She walked over to the bed curtain.

"Um, that might not be the best idea . . ."

"Don't worry, from what I could glean on the way here, I already have an idea of what to expect."

She tossed the curtain open.

_BRIGHT PAIN PAIN pain ! cute/energetic/friend! Happiness . . . fear! SHAME SHAME SHAME_

"Stop that." Arf pulsed a shot of reproach. "I'm here now, you're a mess, and I'm going to clean you up."

_SHAME SHAME LEAVE SHAME LEAVE_

_**THROAT. BITE. DOMINANCE.**_

_! . . . meek submission_

"Much better! I'm not going anywhere, you can't stop me, and for the time being you belong to me. Now, open your senses to me, because I get the feeling you have an itch or two and have been too stubborn to ask dear Shamal for help with them." She pulsed a series of canine feelings to get her point across.

_SHAME Shame shame . . . itch . . . butt._

Shamal de-attuned to the thought device and stopped listening in. "I'll be around if you need me, so you two have fun!" and she vacated. As she walked away she could hear Arf.

"Stop TRYING to move and you won't need these restraints! You never even thought of that, did you? Just relax . . . I said **RELAX**! Good girl. You stink. Yes, badly. Worse, because I'm a dog. Don't you DARE try be vain right now. I'm just telling it like it is. What? . . . So you scared her out. Of course she was horrified. FOR you. Emotional context. Humans, always like this . . . Yes, I know you're sorry. I heard you calling out about it for hours. Yes. I heard that. That spark is your connection to me, remember? OK, now focus on it and feed power into it . . . oh. You can't focus your power. Well, I guess I'll do it from my end. Usually familiars don't impose like this, but today is special. Let's see . .. ah! Left cheek! Anywhere else? OK, now tell me if . . ."

Shamal chuckled as she left hearing range. _The young ones are always so cute. But in this case, Fate seems to be the young one. Maybe she always was, to Arf?_ She arrived at her office, and proceeded to bring up clones of the screens in Fate's room. She watched with interest as the lines jumped whenever Arf strengthened her empathetic connection, and began to think.

-

Takamachi Nanoha was always smiling. She had been smiling as she escaped Fate's hospital room. She smiled until she left the briefing room, and she smiled as she vid-called the staff on the brig deck of the ship that had brought Fate home. She smiled as she spoke to Fate's superior officer, and offered her assistance in the investigation. She was smiling as the head researcher was brought out from his cell in irons to the interrogation room.

"How many more times do you want me to repeat it? Nothing's going to change! I'm no traitor! Just probe me or drug me, or just shoot me and get it over wi-" he stopped short as he was admitted to the room. "That's not the right uniform."

"Please have a seat."

"I'm not being shackled to the table this time?"

"I don't think that will be a problem, Professor Charius"

Wern Charius sat. "Is this the 'good cop' phase? Do I get offered food and sleep and a painless death for confessing?"

Nanoha closed her eyes and said "I don't really understand most of that, but as for food . . ." she turned to the mirror-wall. "Can we get something to eat in here?"

A slight crackle preceded the voice over the intercom, "Uh, ma'am, that goes against standard procedure in cases like this."

Nanoha connected the dots, and then imagined Fate lying in bed for two days unable to rest or eat. Her eyes opened, and her smile died.

"Perhaps you misunderstood me. I already reviewed the tapes of your standard procedure. I'm not going to be asking those questions. I need him awake, alert, and able to remember every detail." She stood up. "This man will be served a three course meal and then given a full ten hours of undisturbed rest in a naval-regulation bunk. If this does not happen in twelve hours, I will see to it that every cent of this department's budget for the next year will be devoted to the construction of a civilian five-star bed and breakfast, and I will feed him myself. Is that clear?"

"MA'AM YES MA'AM!"

Nanoha turned to the professor, her smile restored. "Well then, Professor, I guess I'll come back tomorrow." She left without giving him a chance to say a word.

* * *

Oh god three chapters in three days, how long will I keep this up?


	4. Lingua Franca

The Old War

Chapter 4: Lingua Franca

v1.02, published 12:35 AM, 3/7/2010

-

The next morning, as promised, Nanoha returned. As expected, Charius was alert and awake. But still suspicious, if one went by his face. Nanoha didn't.

"Good morning, Professor. I'm afraid we didn't have the best introduction yesterday afternoon. My name is Nanoha Takamachi." She smiled and offered her hand.

Everyone else watching noticed how Charius' suspicion deposited directly to icy fear. He took the offered hand. "Charmed. I guess it wouldn't be inappropriate to say I've heard of you." He took his seat.

She did as well. " Well, that makes things simpler. You have probably also heard of my friend, Enforcer Harlaown?"

"Indeed. As a Logia researcher, the Jewel Seed incident placed you two onto our radars long before you were actively courted by the military. Few people alive truly understand what exactly you were up against at that time. Fewer understand that you were only nine _and_ had only just picked up magic. It is a miracle you both survived."

Nanoha fingered her side-ponytail bashfully. "Ah, thank you for your compliment. I hadn't expected you to know that much." She straightened, and her expression darkened. "Enforcer Harlaown was the one in command during the raid on your facility. She is currently bedridden. She is going to be fine, but I want to know every detail about what that Lost Logia is. I want to know why you violated protocol-" she held up a hand to stop his complaint, "Not your reason. Your mathematics. You claimed repeatedly that following protocol would have resulted in a 'total breach and release' of the Logia. At the end of the raid, you accused my friend of dooming you all from her actions. I know what she knew at the time. I know you're not a fool, or suicidal. In your earlier interviews, when pressed for your figures, you claimed fatigue and lack of access to equipment.

"You are currently fed and rested. I have equipment." She touched her pendant. "Raising Heart? Go ahead."

"ALL RIGHT."

A display of formulae projected onto the table. Charius fell silent and stared at them with complete concentration. "These readings are from when we unearthed it, before we applied the first sealing protocols."

"Indeed. I want you to run me through your procedures, step by step. We don't have all of your records. Most were destroyed in the blast. However, we do have some. If you deviate from them, I will know, and I will leave. If you follow them, and show me exactly where protocol would have caused a complete mission failure. I will have your name cleared and a medal on your desk before lunch." She closed her eyes. "I know better than most that the rules aren't always perfect. I'm also told I tend to see people in too kind of a light." She took a breath, and returned his gaze. "If I see you are in any way directly responsible for what happened to Fate, you will pay."

He gave an almost feral grin. "Well then, let's hurry this up. I need to go buy a nice suit that won't clash with my new medal."

-

"So, long story short, it was a prison box. The energy from our first seal got absorbed, and apparently began a chain reaction that would have ended in the box opening. Our second and third seals were also absorbed, and sped up said reaction." Charius shrugged. "At the point we were supposed to have the box transferred to the ship, it would have opened up within two hours. I made the call that we couldn't let that happen in open interdimensional space. We managed to slap together a ritualized spell that it couldn't absorb easily, and with an extreme around-the-clock rotation of channeling, had barely managed to tweak it to perfection. If the videos I were shown were accurate, we needed two more seconds to finish our seal when the Enforcer came on scene and made her own call." He leaned back, satisfied.

Nanoha's face didn't betray anything. "And what about your attempts to explain your actions at the time?"

"Deaf ears. Whatever is normally in these boxes, the brass doesn't want anyone to see. They assumed I was trying to open it, and reacted accordingly. No negotiation, overwhelming force. Usually they'd listen, but this thing's Logia classification spawned so much red tape that I am shocked none is stuck to you. I don't know what was in it. The men on scene saw more than I did. I tried to do my job, she tried to do hers."

With that, Nanoha smiled again. "Thank you very much, Professor. I believe I've heard all I need to. In all likelihood, your actions saved hundreds of lives, and not just at risk of your own; you gambled your very academic integrity and good name on it. Few would dare."

"I wasn't alone down there. Every one of my staff was backing me up; any one of them could have stopped me. I wasn't even the one who figured out what was going on at first."

She got up to leave. "Of course. But you still have to get your suit and medal first, so you can be on stage as you give everyone else theirs."

Wern Charius might have blushed, but he'd never admit it. "Of course, Madame. Of course."

She was almost through the door, when she stopped and turned. "By the way, what time or society is that Logia from? Do we know?"

Wren nodded. "I don't have an exact date, but it's definitely pre-Belka."

"Ah, so maybe the church will know?"

"Perhaps. But I didn't mean pre Belkan Empire. I meant Pre-Belkan, as in before the rise of Ancient Belka."

-

Hayate nodded. "Thank you Nanoha. Now then, as you have all heard, the Logia was simply a box. There was a man in the box. He hurt Fate. We tend to dislike people who hurt Fate on principle alone." The sound of cracking knuckles emanated from Signum's direction. Nanoha sneezed. "I have been given command of this mission, to which you are all assigned. I have also been given permission to call in specialists from across the TSAB as I see fit. Normally this means calling in favors, but I get to use scary numbers and priority codes this time, so no one has to know it's me picking all their cherries." She grinned, " You'll also note that I too have had my limiters lifted for the duration of this mission. This means I'll be in the field. They really do seem intent on us blasting this guy, if and when we do manage to find him. I'd like to take this opportunity make a pointed reminder that our limiters' release is NOT an excuse to be reckless. Is that clear, Nanoha?"

Everyone in the briefing room turned to look at the Demonic Cannon Maiden.

Nanoha continued smiling and looking at the podium as if she was paying attention, oblivious.

"Rein?"

"All set!"

The Wolkenritter watched as Reinforce Zwei chanted a fifteen-second long incantation as she floated behind Nanoha's head. Vita in particular leaned forward slightly, opened her mouth and raised a hand, then thought better of it and stopped. It could be her next, after all.

". . . fallen. Tasche Schneeregen Sturm!"

And the room watched as roughly thirty-two ounces of waterly slush manifested over Nanoha's head, and dropped.

SPLAT

"KYA!" She jumped up, "COLDCOLDCOLD!" She looked around desperately. "Who was, what was . . why did . . ." her gaze came to Hayate standing by the podium, hands on hips, foot tapping, and mouth smirking.

"Mission accomplished, Rein! Good work!"

"Yes ma'am! Thank you, ma'am!" the tiny figure giggled and zipped away.

"Hayate-chan, that was mean," complained Nanoha.

"Actually, _Captain Takamachi_, you were daydreaming during my briefing. Just because you got to come up here doesn't mean you get to ignore the rest. Especially not the part about abusing your lack of a limiter."

"Nyahaha."

"No, not 'nyahaha.' 'COLDCOLDCOLD!'"

Laughs were had.

Hayate continued. "Anyways, our opponent has killed no one. He has threatened to kill no one. He has done no permanent-" she caught Nanoha's gaze again, and it wasn't happy. She creased her brow and went on, "no permanent damage to anyone. Which means I will NOT forgive any of you for doing permanent damage to yourselves in the name of stopping him. Not yet. I'm sure Fate wouldn't want you to either, Nanoha. Not over this."

Nanoha considered this, and nodded. Then she shivered a bit and sneezed.

"We're done for now. Pack up your gear, we hit the ship in three hours. Then it's a half day trip, and we are on site. They are sparing no expense for getting us there sooner."

Mutters and a sneeze accompanied the sound of five people leaving. Hayate grabbed her things and went for the door, and stopped.

"You were here too?"

"Of course. Technically, as I am bound to her, I have authority to act as her hand and speak with her voice within the TSAB chain of command. She never wanted me in danger, so she let me stay away. As such: yes, I'm going too; no, you're not stopping me; and yes, Fate will get you if you try. Also, I hope you recorded that stunt, Yuuno, Vivio, and Fate will die laughing."

"Of course I did. From three angles, no less. I also know better than to stop any machination of Fate's that has to do with protecting Nanoha. Welcome aboard, Arf."

-

Jeyrich had resumed command shortly after Fate had fallen, and his progress was less than ideal. In a span of sixty seconds, the operation had gone from clockwork to chaos. An explosion from the core chamber followed by the overloading and failure of both barriers became the opening act for a farcical play starring himself and his men. They were trained and equipped to take down greedy intelligent mages grasping at lost artifacts. They were not trained and equipped to take down lost artifacts that get up and run away . . . or at least, the droppings of artifacts that get up and run.

He had immediately gotten Fate medevaced and proceeded to secure the now-inert Logia. He was utterly unsurprised when the mission did not end, and he was somewhat shocked at his next orders:

-SCAN AND SECURE THE SURROUNDING CITY ASAP, CONFIRM UNKNOWN HAS NOT INFILTRATED. IF CITY IS CLEAR, ADMINISTER A CLASS 34 QUARANTINE BARRIER, ALLOWING FREE ACCESS TO NATIVE CITIZENS. FOLLOWING THIS, BEGIN CAREFUL RECON OF SURROUNDING WILDERNESS. IF UNKNOWN IS LOCATED, DO NOT ENGAGE. IF UNKNOWN MAKES CONTACT, RETREAT.

IF UNKNOWN HAS INFILTRATED A CIVILIAN AREA, DO NOT ENGAGE. REPEAT: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS UNKNOWN TO BE ENAGED. BACKUP EN-ROUTE, MORE ORDERS TO FOLLOW-

A class 34 barrier was a low power, difficult to detect spell that did not act as a 'barrier' per say. It was usually deployed simultaneously with a more advanced barrier that sealed an area completely. The 34 would be an internal, smaller trigger that alerted forces when someone was approaching the edge of the larger area, giving advanced warning so a response team could intervene. In this situation it would simply give off readings of all who passed through it, and would go off like a silent alarm if unrecognized magical energy made contact.

In any case, what surprised him was the priorities. Usually Lost Logia and the creepy things they tended to spawn were his first, highest, and only concern. Disable the user, seal the device, and if necessary suppress the horror that was unleashed. This time he was to protect the locals, and avoid the horror- not that he had any way of dealing with one who could think, let alone cast.

A few hours later the town had been secured. Unadministered World 32 was a post-Belka planet with a low population. Normally the words 'post-Belka' and 'population' don't go together, but this world had survived by a sudden abandonment of dimension-shifting magic and destruction of its Belkan infrastructure in the final days of the latest war. With little magical or tactical significance, it had been ignored by both sides and only after the TSAB had formed was contact reestablished. The natives had little desire to join the TSAB proper, and the TSAB had no great designs for the world- at least, as long as they allowed archeologists to scour the landscape for buried artifacts.

That, more than anything else, worried Jeyrich. Usually the Logia teams ignored the well-being of local populations in _administered_ worlds, let alone unadministered ones. The logic was clear: if a neighborhood or city had to go for the best chance of saving multiple worlds, if not multiple dimensions, then it was gone. It was an ugly job, but when options are limited and hard calls have to be made five seconds ago, he knew what was expected of him.

The only reason that the town was being protected was because something in it would make the unknown more dangerous. Perhaps it was a vampiric type. Jeyrich never thought for a second that he was working for the sake of the town. After raising the barrier, he led a team north towards the forest that spread back to the nearby mountain range. The other four directions were flat, open and led towards other towns. They were being monitored from orbit. If the unknown had a chance avoid the scans, he'd either be in the town or the woods.

His team did a few passes over the closest portion of the forest, concentrating on the areas within a day's march of fresh water. Sure enough, the remains of a campfire revealed themselves. Jeyrich and four men touched down. The charred remains of a rabbit lay by the long-cold pit. He noticed, sealed, and picked up a small black crystal that was probably left by the unknown.

"Spread out, see if you can pick up a trail. If he's not flying, he's walking."

"Yes sir!" chorused the troops.

Jeyrich looked down at his hand. Around it was Kädenojennus, his glove-type device. In it was the crystal. Scans showed it had barely enough energy in it to create a light, if not even a degree's worth of internal heat. _Is it a bomb? No, no energy. A remnant of a spell? No, there would be traces of magic in the air. A beacon? Once again, not enough energy. And why would he drop a beacon? He's not trying to contact anyone or send for help. In fact, the only way this thing would transmit and viable information is if-_

"-the link to it got suddenly cut off!" He whirled around and barely had time to raise his hand before a black armored gauntlet grabbed his face and slammed him backwards into a tree. "Voima Mas-UCK!" he was cut off by a blow to the solar plexus. The last thing he thought before the blue light pulsed was _Wait, if this guy is a vampiric mage, why didn't they have me burn the whole town?_ Then, he and the figure both screamed.

A moment later Jerich crumpled to the ground. His assailant almost followed, but landed on one knee and braced himself on the tree. He coughed, then looked up as he heard the shouts and approach of the other soldiers. He stood, brushed himself off, and spared a glance at his unconscious foe.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, that wasn't particularly pleasant for me either." With that, he mumbled an incantation and took off into the sky.

* * *

I was aiming for one chapter a night, but I read _The Name of the Wind_ from cover to cover Friday afternoon and had to hit the sack early for an appointment Saturday morning. What does this mean? Hopefully, two superchapters in a row.


	5. The Calm Before the Storm

The Old War

Chapter 5: The Calm Before the Storm

V1.00, initial publication, 3/8/2010 11:38PM

-

Hayate reviewed the numbers again and sighed. Shamal had given her a full report on the affliction that befell Fate, and despite showing how to apply treatment, it had nothing useful about causing it or preventing it. Seeing as she was leading her friends into (likely) combat against one who could wield this effect, she had been hoping for a bit more of an edge than this. Still, she had something.

Each member of the team, including herself, had been outfitted with a small sensor device that was separate from yet attuned to each mage's linker core. In the event that another similar pulse was used, the information gleaned from this gadget would probably give Hayate what she needed to devise a potential countermeasure, if not utterly nullify the spell's potential altogether. She was not at all happy that this plan, her best plan, was based on the assumption- no, _relying _on the assumption that another one of her teammates would have to suffer. In the darkest corners of her mind, she acknowledged that if this was regarding some sort of more sinister, lethal attack, that the best she'd be able to do involved dooming another friend to die. Thankfully, the burdens of her command hadn't gotten that heavy. Yet.

She stretched in her temporary quarters on board the ship, the _Daydreamer_. It wasn't much of a combat vessel, instead serving more of a scouting role. It was fast, fast, and fast. It was also cramped, delicate, and moderately Spartan in accommodations. This suited SIgnum just fine, and neither Nanoha nor Signum ever tended to complain, but Vita had to be silenced more than once before accidentally insulting their hosts' vessel. Rein got her home brought with Hayate wherever she went, and Zaphira could relax so long as there was a warm corner to curl up in. On that note, so could Arf.

Arf. That was an unexpected factor. Not too shocking, considering the circumstances, but not something Hayate had planned for. She already had a few older and newer friends being shifted from their current assignments and shipped to UW32. Fate's familiar was a bonus, albeit a small one. Not to insult her; but Zaphira already filled any canine-applicable role, and Hayate was certain that Arf's primary focus during this endeavor would be to watch Nanoha. Not her back; Vita tended to take that role to its extreme. But to protect her from herself, that was something Arf would be right for. Vita was, in her own way, too softhearted to actually attempt to stop Nanoha from going all-out if doing so would risk breaking Nanoha's heart.

Fate, however, was different. Hayate shuddered. Fate's love for Nanoha was on a level so absolute and uncompromising that she'd probably fight Nanoha almost to the death if doing so would prevent her from shortening her own life. She'd do it without hesitation, without blinking, and without the slightest concern that Nanoha wouldn't forgive her. These were the values she'd instill in Arf, and Arf already held Nanoha in near-deific regard for saving Fate in the first place. Hayate didn't expect insubordination or infighting to be a problem; she just had trouble being comfortable with the fact that Fate had already accounted for some of the worst, most heartbreaking possibilities and rationally accounted for them- all while being bedridden, dumb, and effectively powerless. _She's a dear and wonderful friend, but every time she does something like this I am thankful she hasn't ever aimed for any sort of higher command. She'd be a genius, technically, but she'd fail utterly at keeping up morale. The level of faith she operates with on a daily basis is near-impossible to raise, and utterly ridiculous to expect from subordinates. That's probably why Teana is the only apprentice she's ever taken; she's one of the few other living mages that's witnessed our little group in action._

She sipped her coffee and watched the interdimensional space fly by. Slipping back into the moment, she considered her available skillsets. At least she'd be able to have two initial teams with a dog's nose. Nanoha would probably remain under perfect control until the precise moment she saw the objective, so holding her back might be wise . . .

Hayate brought up a datapad and started typing in orders.

-

They made planetfall seven days after the initial attack. Even before Hayate had gotten her team on the way, passing ships had been making regular supply drops, so the Logia Recovery Team camp had grown into something resembling a fully-stocked command center. The full potential of a TSAB landing force wasn't possible until a fully-equipped ship-of-the-line was in orbit, but Chrono had told her the soonest one of those could get there was in seven more days, minimum. They had both known anything was possible in seven days, but they didn't dwell on it.

After reading the reports of Jeyrich's squad, and checking on the man's condition, Hayate reaffirmed her decisions regarding squad composition to herself. The target was undetectable with their technology at the moment. He hadn't used nearly enough magic to lock on to, and they also hadn't had a ship in orbit with that powerful of a ground scanner. As such, Hayate was not going to risk her biggest aces in the hole – herself and Nanoha – as part of the ground scouting process.

The recon teams were divided as such: Team Yin featured Shamal as commander, backed up by Vita, Arf, and Rein. Team Yang had Signum at its head, accompanied by Agito and Zaphira. Hayate and Nanoha would be back at base for the time being, on standby. After quelling some grumbling from Vita regarding being on 'the sissy team,' Hayate made her intentions clear.

"Shamal is commanding a team in the field this time because she's done all she can for Fate without more information. Normally she'd be running medical at camp, but the potential benefit of her getting a firsthand look at the enemy outweighs the risk to our medical capacity. She's left her notes and we have a fully equipped sickbay on the _Daydream_ waiting for us.

"Team Yang is a man down because they are faster, and can escape easier if that is needed. Sorry Vita, you've been eating too much for dessert lately. Nanoha is on neither team at the moment because as one of our two potential long-range artillery sources, I refuse to risk having her taken out of play this early because of a lucky fluke. I am completely open to the possibility of one of you calling down a Starlight Breaker on your own position as an option of last resort. ."

At this last, Vita paled and Signum nodded. The latter waited a beat and asked "I assume our priority at this point is taking down the target alive? You'd only seriously suggest I call in That Thing for backup if I am pressed to the choice of shifting to either lethal force or failure."

"Exactly." Hayate confirmed, "Your priorities are finding the target, gauging his actual threat level, and bringing him back here safely- either peacefully or unconsciously. This means that you all are under orders to hold back to some degree. Nanoha gets out of that by a technicality, so I have her cuffed to me for the time being. I have my own very specific and clear orders as to how to deal with this target, orders I will not be sharing with you under any circumstances, as that gives you all plausible deniability. Zaphira and Arf will be tracking by scent, team members may unison as needed, and we aren't under any restrictions on communication. Yin, Yang, move out!"

The groups gave their acknowledgements and flew out, low to the ground. Hayate watched until she couldn't see them anymore, then turned back to the base. She was greeted with Nanoha's smile.

"You seem to be in a good mood, all things considered."

Nanoha thought for a moment, and responded, "Well, despite what's already happened, now I can't shake the feeling that everything's going to turn out all right." She began to walk to the command tent. "It always does in the end, right?"

Hayate couldn't help but smile at this and follow.

* * *

Ack, this chapter was hard to write. Why? Because nothing happened. I blew all my mental energy on trying to sift through the team division and Hayate's thought process, and was slightly worn down by the time I would have normally inserted some humor or what-have-you between the lines. I could have charged on to the next action scene, but as I am right now I don't trust myself to make it as entertaining as I could, so I'll leave it for next chapter.

Instead, I'll give some author insight. After re-reading what I've done so far, I can see where it might hit a dissonant chord with readers. I'll toss this out right now: I initially designed an antagonist, a history for him, and a vehicle by which he'd get tossed into the casts' lives. I then thought about who'd have the best odds of encountering him first, and wound up with Fate. I knew what his motivations were, and what his style was like, and only after I had the first encounter lined up did I consider what that particular spell would do to a modern Midchildan mage. I have not yet read a word of Kirstie Anne's "What Hurts the Most," but I will admit that the 'amnesia' root of the 'amnesia, but backwards!' popped into my head from seeing her summary to her story. "No one's done the inverse of amnesia! Great idea Lark!" Then I thought it through, and realized what I had gotten myself into.

On some level, when I saw the review that said "Post-modern," I forever linked that term in my head with 'things that involve poop.' Oops.

Welp, part of the fun of this style of writing is throwing a bunch of darts at the wall, then doing what I can to make a story by connecting the darts. Uncomfortable hospital setting aside, I got to do the emotional-telepathy thing, which was received well enough. Running on the assumption that however few reviews I have, any negative commentary is shared by dozens of other readers that don't bother to comment, I can make adjustments to writing in the future.

More action next time! I promise!


	6. Cry Havoc

The Old War

Chapter 6: Cry Havoc

v1.00 initial publication, 3/10/2010 7:09PM

-

The initial search pattern was in the shape of a heart. The bottom point was the basecamp, and the top point was the abandoned campfire where Jeyrich went down. Assumedly the target would have vacated the previous encounter zone, and each team was swinging wide to either side of the last known location in anticipation of this. The chances of the target moving in precisely the opposite direction from the basecamp into the forest and mountains was incredibly slim, and would imply very bad things in regards to the target's available intelligence if he did so. As such, if neither team picked up a hot trail as they got closer and closer to the optimal angle of escape, they'd be that much closer to each other when they started covering the only options left.

Most importantly, as they approached the 'tops' of the heart and swung back downwards towards each other, the chances of the target remaining within the 'heart zone' began to outweigh the chances he had escaped in the most favorable possible direction. If such was the case, then they had the entire away team on one side, and Nanoha with Hayate on the other. Even Fate wouldn't be fast enough to escape the jaws of that deathtrap.

It also is worth mentioning that this entire maneuver was based on the assumption the target had not flown away. Hayate had reviewed Jeyrich's device's last footage, and saw the target take off; sensors had also picked up a very short burst of energy at the time. Wherever he had flown, it was only far enough to evade Jeyrich's team, and then he had to have touched back down. No similar bursts of energy had been detected since. Wherever he had gone since, he was on the ground.

Team Yang shot off to the north-northwest, and Team Yin headed east-northeast. Arf shortly called out a trace of old scent from what was most likely the initial escape for the facility, and quickly moved on. No use in trying to follow the scraps of an almost week-old trail. The same logic had been applied to why the search hadn't started at the campfire; chances were his scent would be everywhere within the center of the zone, and they were only interested in his vector of escape.

Both teams raced through the forest, all the way to the 'widest' portion of the heart-pattern and beyond. Hayate began to sweat slightly, and as she realigned her calculations regarding where the enemy could have possibly seen their operations Arf called out to everyone mentally.

_Taijitu, this is Yin 3, I've got him! Day old trail at most, heading roughly north. Chances are Yang will be able to pick up this trail farther along than me if they head northeast. Hayate, from what I'm sending so far, can you give any quick and dirty guesses as to where he's going?_

Hayate looked at her overlay map, and watched as Arf's trail had left the heart-path and started veering off. She gave a few more seconds to account for terrain deviations, and knelt down to have a 'bird's eye view' of her holographic display. She responded both vocally and telepathically.

"From what I can see, he's most likely going for the closest mountain pass. The mountains are about the only visible landmark if he's running lost, and seismic forces do slightly inhibit magical readings. Team Yang, you are to head on Arf's recommended vector. Team Yin, upon Yang's successful detection of the trail, you are free to rendezvous and merge."

_Roger!_ Came back over a half dozen voices.

Minutes later, Zaphira called in. _Yang 2 here, hot trail has been crossed. I repeat, trail is hot. Two hours at most. Target seems to be hopping great distances at low altitudes, which would give him much greater net speed. Yin 3, this sound familiar?_

_Negative Yang 2_, responded Arf, _trail is only warm, ground based and slow. Perhaps target was at this point at night, and had no enhanced vision capabilities. Taijitu, do our respective vectors line up?_

Nanoha glanced at Hayate, who nodded. She touched Raising Heart reflexively and replied. _Affirmitive, Yin 3. You are clear to-_

_Whoa, hold up,_ Arf cut in._Trail is cutting to the east hard. Very hard. Still only warm. I can keep going or we can meet up with Yang. Your call, Taijitu._

Zaphira sounded off again. _Be advised, trail is live, under an hour old. Requesting permission to send Yang 1 ahead from above for visual contact with target. These mountains are getting pretty close._

Hayate thought for a tense couple of seconds and closed her eyes. _Yang 2, plan approved. Yang 1 and 3, you are clear for unison and hot pursuit. Yin 3, keep following that path. I want to know what he was doing. Team Yang be advised, long range support incoming. Don't enter the mountain pass._

Nanona blinked. "Hayate?"

"I need your unique talents. Specifically, here." Hayate poked a holographic snowdrift. "One Divine Buster ought to do it. Nothing too fancy, I just want an avalanche blocking the pass. Big enough to do what it has to at extreme long range, but not so big it melts more snow than it moves. Uplink with the ship if you need to."

"I think I'll be fine. Back in a second!" Her ponytail trailed behind her as she exited the tent.

Nanoha activated Raising Heart, but didn't don her barrier jacket. The staff formed, and she took off straight up to about 100 feet/30 meters high. Raising Heart shifted to Shooting Mode and loaded two cartridges. Nanoha aimed, and a scope manifested. Then a large, medium, and small 'Buster Ring' appeared in front of the tip. Shortly thereafter, what looked like a sideways pink snowman appeared, sitting on the barrel.

"Divine Buster, Extension Plus!"

The largest of the three buster charges instantly shrunk to nothing, and the smallest one in front blasted a beam- an incredibly fast beam, for a Divine Buster. The center ball, began to rapidly shrink as Nanoha walked the beam painstakingly slowly from left to right. The center ball fizzled out, and the beam stopped. She floated back down to the ground, and Raising Heart vented some heat.

She reentered the tent to see Hayate grinning childishly at the holographic table as a pink line streaked across the landscape.

"I never get tired of this. I feel like an evil overlord, directing power across the world. I'd practice my evil laugh, but the troops might get the wrong idea." She glanced at Nanoha and suppressed a giggle. "Let's hope this keeps going smoothly."

-

Arf dashed forward, following the trail eastward. It didn't take long for the 'hotter' trail Zaphira was on to merge into this one. So, wherever she was heading, the target had detoured from his straight shot for the mountains, done something (sleep, most likely), and then started moving again with vastly increased speed. One forested hill and dip later, she found herself charging towards a cave.

Team Yin glided to a halt at the cave entrance. Arf sniffed the air. _Smoke, and . . . burned animal. And something I can't place. And the target, of course._ Shamal nodded, and stepped forward.

"I'll take point for now. We're not expecting trouble, so I'll concentrate on scanning. Vita, don't do anything reckless."

The small knight turned to Shamal with a start. "Hey! What was that for?"

The lake knight smiled. "Knowing you, one swing of Graf Eisen would bring this whole cave down on our heads. Think twice before you attack anything." She walked inside.

Rein floated in next, whispering to herself. Suddenly, she started glowing brightly. "Ha! Pseudobioluminescence!" She spun and faced Vita. "Say that three times fast!" Vita knotted her brow and walked forward.

"Sudobioloomene, pseudobiolom- gah! No. I give up."

"Aww, you were so close! Well, you still get the consolation prize." Rein zipped up to her crimson-clad companion and touched Graf Eisen. "There you go!"

"_JAWOHL!_" responded the Steel Count.

Vita then lit up like a store display. "Hey! Stop teaching Eisen strange things! Shamal, make her st- ah! Traitor!" she saw that Shamal was already glowing, holding Klarerwind out, humming to herself serenely.

Behind them, Arf trotted in quietly. Her wolfish expression was the same as always, but it was probably a safe bet that she was laughing.

-

Signum took off up at a 45 degree angle from Zaphira, and started putting on some speed.

Agito matched her. "Finally! Zaphy's nose is great, but I was getting tired of flying so slooooooowly!" She mimed something that could have been doing a backstroke in molasses. "It sounds like this guy might be a decent fight. We could have an excuse to try out some of our new tricks! " She started orbiting her partner laterally while she went on.

Signum was not entirely untouched by her small friend's enthusiasm. Where before in this kind of situation she'd have a stoic look on her face, more recently she'd caught herself smiling before a fight. Today was no exception, and just as she was about to reply, she noticed a blue flash in the distance, in the trees.

_Yang 1 has visual contact! Engaging! Agito?_

_Your wish is my command, my lord! Engaging unison!_

Agito faded from sight and Signum transformed in a burst of flame. The world seemed to slow down (and cool off a bit, too) as her four spritelike wings of fire manifested. Her smile upgraded itself to a grin, and inside herself, she felt Agito with the same expression.

If one had asked her today what gaps or holes she had as a knight before she met Agito, she would have answered none, and been correct. Her skill, her honor, and her loyalty were all intact and whole. Sure, she tended to smile little and speak even less, but in the end that was just ascribed to her personality. If one had asked her today what she lacked compared to her friends and peers back then, she would have probably spared a cold glare and challenged the poor enquirer to a sparring match.

But if one asked that last question again today, she finally had an answer. Agito had progressively lightened her heart, and forced her to face something she had missed before. Be it Hayate, Nanoha, Fate, and to some degree even Vita, Signum's style of fighting lacked a key element. It lacked flair. Old Signum had dismissed this as irrelevant, and was not completely wrong. Flair would not win in combat. It wouldn't make her any stronger, or more effective. She dismissed it as a pointless waste of energy, and simply faced off her opponents one after another, with Laevatein serving as her sword, or bow, or torch. Clean, practical, and efficient.

Still, as the years went by after her release from the Book, she couldn't help but notice one particular pattern as the missions came and went. With very few exceptions, every single opponent she faced on assignments was willing to fight her to the end. Usually these would be arrogant mages using long range combat magic, all of whom tended to underestimate her based on her relative lack of long ranged options. Sure, she was fast and strong and skilled, but she was no Takamachi Nanoha. They'd surrender to _That Thing_, but not her.

And after she formed her contract with Agito, she saw the whole of it. All of her friends were, to some degree or another, capable of 'overkill:' flashy, morale-crushing displays of excessive force, which were usually just as effective as they looked. Signum tended to use as little force as possible in any fight she was in; such a style sharpened her skills, and allowed her to more accurately gauge her opponent's threat level. Agito put up with less than a week of this, then proceeded to browbeat her new master into a change of pace, under pain of literally having 'tsumaranai' (joyless, boring) branded on her now semi-regularly-exposed back.

The long and the short of it was, Agito had explained, that terrifying examples of one's magical prowess were most useful for demonstrating to opponents that one was not to be crossed. Signum had already grasped the roots of this with her signature finishing moves, but was always too slow to bring them out for intimidation purposes. The point was not to try to show you were more powerful than you actually were, or to boast like a spoiled child. As Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and even Vita had already proven, the point was to convince your enemy you were powerful enough that combat itself was meaningless, and that surrender is the single sane option. The final blow had been struck with logic:

"Anyways, m'lord, if you insist on using as little force as possible to hold up your honor and potentially prevent the loss of life, wouldn't it be even more necessary for you to attempt to peacock a bit? If you can stop a fight before it even starts, you've fulfilled your obligations, saved time, and depending on the situation, perhaps even saved energy in the end. And you can't tell me it's not at least a little fun."

'Fun' outside the confines of a battle that stretched her skills to their limits was a near-alien concept. Still, once again, Signum had followed her partner's advice, and been won over.

And so, it was with this new mindset that she gazed into the distance, studied her target, the terrain, and the distances involved, and as one with Agito formed a plan. She drew her sword . . .

"_Bogenform!_"

. . . and notched an arrow of flame. This was not a _Sturm Falken _bolt. It was not nearly as powerful or fast. It would still fly swift and true, however. She lined up her shot at a tree just ahead of the target as he made another leap. At the same time, a spell triangle appeared at her feet (near vertically oriented as she was still flying forward, angled down). Agito built up power, and just when she was about to release it, Signum fired her shot.

"_AFTERBURNER!" _Agito cried out.

As the arrow flew, a burst of intense flame came from the sigil at her feet and she quite literally rocketed forward. Faster than the arrow, faster than sound. At the same time, Laevatein split back in two, but before the 'sheathe' half could resume its normal shape, both pieces expanded into _Schlangenform_ and trailed behind her. At the exact moment planned, right before she hit the ground in front of the target, she whipped both blades out and spun around to face her quarry, slashing and igniting two trees to either side. Both blades retracted, the sheathe reformed, and she stood fast and calmly slid them back together.

From the foe's perspective:

He leapt again and again, making extremely good progress compared to the previous day. Being able to see helped, and so did having a backup plan. A plan that wouldn't be necessary, if he could get close enough to the mountains to foil whatever scrying his hunters were using. As he touched down and prepared to leap again, a flash of light preceded an arrow hitting a tree just in front of him. He slid to a stop, and spun to face his assailant . . .

. . . and was nearly knocked over by a wall of sound. Backpedaling, he searched for his attacker, and spun around _again_ after hearing a pair of horrible wood-cracking noises. Two flaming trees fell across what would have been his next leap. In front of them, a lone woman with wings of flame sheathed a sword, but kept it held up in front of her, ready at a moment's notice. She met his gaze, and said:

"You cannot escape. Surrender and your life will be spared."

As if to echo agreement from the heavens themselves, a searing beam of pink light appeared over their heads and traced across the nearest mountaintop, beginning an avalanche that would clog the pass beyond any hope of travel.


	7. Baraddûr

The Old War

Chapter 7: Barad-dûr

V1.00, initial publication, 3/17/2010 5:11 AM

-

The cave wasn't all that deep or treacherous; it went back into the rock and down, branched off once or twice, and stopped. Shamal's initial sonar-esque pings with Klarerwind revealed that much. So, without fanfare, she stepped into the final chamber and saw a large blackish-blue crystal floating back near the farthest wall. It was about the size of Arf in her child form, slowly spinning and gently pulsing with the indigo light. Unlike the previous specimen, it was energized, and ready to do . . . whatever it did. Assumedly sealing it would tip off the target, as it did with the last one. Shamal readied another scanning spell, and began analysis.

Vita looked at it a bit, and shrugged. "I could break it." She lost interest and joined Rein in looking at some odd cave bugs crawling around. Arf finished sniffing around the previous chamber and entered.

"That would be the new scent. It's vaguely familiar, but . . . no. Have you called it in yet?"

Shamal shook her head. "I was just about to –"

_Yang 1 has visual contact! Engaging!_ echoed Signum's mental voice.

"Well, looks like the excitement is about to start. I'll let Hayate know about this and we'll probably join the chase." She closed her eyes. _Yin 1 to Taijitu, we have found another crystalline object in a cave at the end of this trail. It is much larger and more charged with energy than the previous one. We are ready for securing it or destroying it. Orders?_

-

Signum took this opportunity to get a good look at the one who had been stirring up so much trouble this past week. He stood roughly six feet tall, or would have if he wasn't semi-crouched like a coiled spring. His armor (and it was certainly to be called such, as this was no barrier jacket) was an incredibly well articulated set of full plate, with either an armet or a close helm on top. The whole set was obviously magically generated because at first glance she noticed no way to unstrap or disengage it. The color scheme, in theme with the color of his power and the crystal, was a deep polished black (almost like stone rather than metal) with rich navy blue trim. In the light of the burning trees and setting sun, it looked positively sinister.

Superficialities aside, she focused on the most important detail: four of those small crystals were orbiting his head slowly. Each was glowing, and they were definitely not harmless or passive in nature. She noted he had no obvious weapon. His stance looked like he was ready for melee combat- not unique in Signum's experience, but certainly rare. It was at least the first time she had been challenged in this manner while unisoned with Agito.

They held their positions for long enough to first hear the echoes of, the feel the cool breeze from the avalanche in the distance. The black knight (_With armor like that, he has to be a knight, right?_) suddenly dropped his stance, stood up straight, and folded his arms behind his back. A few more seconds passed, and Signum didn't move. _This is either a feint, or he is honestly not going to fight. If I guess wrong, it will be disastrous. If I guess wrong AND he is a dishonorable wretch, I might get knocked out._

_Boss, one of the thingies is spinning real fast._

Sure enough, Signum had been so intently focused on the potential first strike that she failed to notice that one of the four crystals was spinning during its orbit. She had no idea what was about to happen, but it was against her code to strike out at an enemy with her blade no intentions of fighting back. When the suspect crystal started flaring with blue light and letting out a high pitched whining noise, she decided it was better to err on the side of caution, and _move_. In a fraction of a second, she had seared a path 120 degrees around him, maintaining her distance. Assuming he was lining up a shot of some sort, his readjustment would give her time to decide if she was being attacked . . .

The chuckle, she wasn't exactly surprised by. The flash of energy and spell sigil that appeared at his feet for a second, she was actually anticipating. The whole of his body vanishing into blue mist and evaporating into nothing? Less so. She had sat there like a fool, and let him _teleport away_. No, wait. She wasn't a fool. Teleports take much longer than that, and require a lot more channeling; enough that the base would have picked it up- her enhanced senses then revealed that the air currents had, in fact responded as if a mass had vanished with only vacuum to replace it. That was a teleport. An insanely, impossibly fast teleport.

The base. She was vaguely aware that someone had said something via telepathy during the intense moment, but she hadn't listened. _Yang 1 to all units! Target is capable of high-speed teleportation magic! I have lost him! Repeat, I've lost him!_

_-_

_Yin 1 to Taijitu, we have found another crystalline object in a cave at the end of this trail. It is much larger and more charged with energy than the previous one. We are ready for securing it or destroying it. Orders?_

_Yang 1 to all units! Target is capable of high-speed teleportation magic! I have lost him! Repeat, I've lost him!_

Hayate's next few seconds passed by very slowly. She had displays up of everyone's devices' points of view, and was watching Signum's when the target vanished. She then glanced at the general sensor readouts, and got nothing in the way of interdimensional waves. _That's funny_, she thought. And with that, the whole world ground to a halt as she single-mindedly refused to think about anything else with this unwelcome puzzle in front of her.

_Teleportation spells take relatively huge amounts of energy, incredible focus, and a bit of sheer luck. How would I cast one that fast? I'd . . . prepare it in advance and pull it out of the Book. How would Nanoha or Fate do it? They . . . they wouldn't. Unless they had planned to do so ahead of time too. But that's impossible, even if they used a cartridge, they'd still have to concentrate to lock on to their destination . . . unless they had a beacon . . . oh, oh no!_

_SHAMAL! BE CAREFUL!_ She mentally yelled. And for two heartbeats, nothing happened.

_Why hasn't he arrived? I shouldn't be wrong. What haven't I thought of? The vibrations! Why hasn't he shaken the dimensional readings? Because he hasn't disturbed them. Why hasn't he appeared? Because he hasn't broken the bounds of relativity in a single space-time!_

Sure enough, the large crystal on her Klarerwind screen began to glow. _He travelled in a straight line at near lightspeed, but since he did it without dimension hopping, his time passes almost instantly while ours keeps ticking for a few seconds! Ha! There's a reason why people don't use this style of teleportation normally! Now he'll take a moment to re-form and we'll have him!_

She glanced over at Nanoha to see what she was thinking, but her friend was already gone.

-

_SHAMAL! BE CAREFUL!_

The Knight of the Lake snapped open her eyes and took a half step backwards. The crystal she had enquired about had started pulsing faintly, and Klarerwind detected an influx of power. "Everyone! We have incoming!"

Vita hefted Graf Eisen and grunted. Rein floated between then and asked "Should I unison with someone?" Arf simply growled. The crystal began to glow in earnest while a faint blue mist surrounded them all. It gathered in front of the crystal, and with a screeEEE-_WHOOMP_ noise, the armored man appeared in a flash of light. He was facing the crystal, and only three of the smaller crystals were still orbiting his head.

He dropped his stoic posture, slumped a bit, and let out a sigh. "That bluff cost me a couple years off my li-" and stopped his sentence short as he turned around. Arf dashed forward and lunged for his left leg. "How in the- ah!" She snapped her jaws down on his armored calf. "Dogs. Of course, you used dogs!" He managed to maintain his footing and take notice of his assailants.

Shamal began to cast. The Belkan triangle appeared at her feet with a chiming sound. Vita let loose a battle cry and charged forward. Rein managed to sputter a "Heywaitform- oh, never mind!" and started her own spell. Arf kept her grip as best she could, but her jaw was built for throat-tearing and hamstringing, not metal-clamping. As such, her victim managed one desperate lunge diagonally forward to dodge Vita's swing and land haphazardly at Shamal's feet. He managed to barely prop himself up on his one free leg and a hand (The force of his dodge actually caused Arf to flip on her side to keep her grip), bringing his face to face with a dangling Klarerwind.

In the space of a second, Shamal began to step backwards again away from him, Vita was recovering from her spinning-_wiff_ and was lining up another shot, and Arf was trying to decide how much good she was going to be able to do in wolf form as opposed to human form. He one look at the hanging ring-pendant, and said "Wait, if you're all Smiths . . . " and snatched it.

Shamal blinked, and got out "Use the _Book_ on m-!" before the flash happened and she went down. Rein's spell caught in her throat for fear of hitting Shamal, and Graf Eisen began to glow red.

"_You. Hurt. Shamal._" Another spell circle appeared beneath Vita's feet.

"Wait,what just- all I did was- why is she-" he stopped sputtering and realized his impending doom. "This is _not_ going to end well for me!" Two of his remaining crystals flashed, and he was gone.

-

Before Hayate could ask Nanoha where she went, an alert beeped. She looked back at her display and saw the unexpected-yet-not-unwelcome reading of an extremely short range conventional teleport, from inside the cave to right outside and above. _He seems to be running through his tricks from best to worse, and if I had to guess I'd say he's running out._

_He's just outside the cave! Signum, Vita, pursue!_

_Hayate! Shamal is down! He got her!_

Hayate frowned for a moment. _Yin 3, recover Yin 1 and return. Yin 2, Yin 4, unison and pursue. Target is_ . . . she watched the holotable for a couple more seconds . . . _heading directly north towards the mountains at high speed, likely flying outright. _She watched the rate of his progress and did a bit of mental math. _Signum, try to cut him off. Vita, go as fast as you can, but I don't think you'll catch up to him- _She stopped, and considered Vita's current mental state_ –belay that,Yin 2. Return to base immediately. Escort Yin 3. _She waited for acknowledgement. _Yin 2, do you copy?_

_I copy, Taijitu. Heading in._

-

Vita+Rein was the only one left in the cave at this point. Arf had switched to human form, grabbed Shamal (who had been awake, but completely limp) and _moved_ the moment Hayate had issued her orders. Vita took a step out of the chamber to leave, but tossed a glance back at the large crystal that was still serenely floating. She gritted her teeth, clenched a fist, and . . .

-

The armored man had thrown caution to the wind at this point. He had apparently already lethally enraged at least two of his pursuers, blown through three of the four reserve crystals he had managed to scrape together this last week, and all he had to show for it all was a new language and a slightly twisted ankle. He had no idea where he was, let alone the very name of the world he was standing on, or even the date. The language barrier was an extra-unwelcome surprise, because it vaguely implied a huge problem with the local Emissary.

The fact that he was still unable to hail the aforementioned strongly implied a smaller problem. For the time being, he was reduced to the most basic interpretation of his singular goal since he awoke in that dreary smoke-filled room: ditch his pursuers and take some time to seriously rest and gain his bearings. A full set of crystals would probably net him the energy he needed to contact a different world, and –

His thoughts were jumbled by another wall of sound. This one was less all-consuming, but more ominous in that it had . . . he stopped for a second and turned around. Sure enough, the cave he had just hastily exited was no more. Oh, he couldn't see it from here, but he could see the cloud of dust and debris above it, and he felt his single pylon fade from his awareness. The four tiny red rising stars kept climbing into the sky above the cloud before they winked out among the first few visible members of their more stable cousins. For what seemed like the thousandth time today, he shuddered. He then turned and shot off northward again, hoping beyond hope that he might be able to hide in the mountains.

-

Nanoha Takamachi did not consider herself reckless. Now, she wasn't an idiot; she was aware that if she actually expressed this opinion of herself within audible range of anyone who knew her, they would immediately commence with physical violence followed by an impromptu pysch eval. Even Fate would probably disagree, vehemently at that. Still, the fact stood.

That said, once again, Nanoha was not an idiot. She just merely weighed her own personal well being very lightly on her internal scale of costs/benefits when compared to the well being of anyone she loved. Only after the Scaglietti incident was she made aware just how much her own pain and suffering echoed on all those people at once; she finally had a workable counterbalance to her frankly suicidal tendencies in high power magical combat.

Suicidal being the most brutal interpretation, of course. The Blaster system was a semi-ramshackle way of increasing her raw output. The costs and benefits could be most aptly described with a gun metaphor: by adding the Blaster bits to her normal arsenal, it was like strapping on an extra set of barrels and firing mechanisms to a handgun. One pull of the trigger would fire all of them at once. To keep with this metaphor, Nanoha's particular brand of magic after the Excelion System upgrade was comparable to a Desert Eagle. Firing one of those one handed enough, over time, would wear down one's arm. Firing five at once would rapidly and inevitably destroy it.

That is, if one was still firing the standard rounds.

After saving Vivio (and the final Section 6 mock battle), her limiters had been put back in place. This did not prevent her from thinking about the Blaster system, however. Every serious combat she saw (and they were relatively few and far between) would prompt her to ask herself _What could I do if my limiters were off that I can't do right now?_ It was typical Nanoha training thought-exercise; just because she was technically cut off from that particular mental muscle didn't mean she would forget to use it often, lest it atrophy when she really needed it.

After the initial teleport of the target to the cave, Nanoha had run through some logic. The mage was, above everything else, trying not to be caught. He had displayed a surprising affinity for teleportation magic and the unconventional application thereof; this presented a new and unique challenge. Nanoha had never really considered the implications of rapid short-range teleportation before, but as soon as the possibility was displayed, she had mentally set out to defeat it.

His initial behavior was, with the exception of the assaults on Fate and the commander, extremely cautious. He laid low for a few days, then tried to sneak towards the mountains without giving away what he was about. This meant he was unaware that they had predicted that move from the onset. He didn't know they were already aware of common anti-scrying tactics. He was ignorant of the limits of their procedures, technology, and magic. He had underestimated them drastically, and was now paying the price. The mad dash north was what he should have gone for in the first place. It would take a very long time to comb such an area, even if they watched him run to it. He may not have understood that at the right time, but he was about to be at the same tactical advantage now.

_Unless . . ._

Nanoha did some math in her head, frowned, and did some more. After she had walked out of the command tent she had set-up to her full combat dress and taken off towards the cave. This had only lasted for a moment before the change in situation, at which point she shot straight up. She had just about reached the first clouds when she opened a channel to the ship in orbit to request a downlink to Raising Heart. Once she confirmed that the full image analysis power of the scout's not-unimpressive sensor array was at her beck and call, she pointed Raising Heart at the target's last known vector.

"BLASTER TWO! SEALING MODE!"

_Nanoha- NANOHA! What the __**hell**__ are you doing? _Hayate's panicked thoughts came through.

_Nothing reckless. Just trust me._

-

Hayate didn't know how to respond to that. No matter what she said, or how harshly she threatened, she knew that tone when she heard it. Nanoha thought she had a trump card. She intended to use it. The worst part was, those trump cards tended to be paid for in blood. Activating Blaster Two was not doing anything to quell those fears.

She looked at her field map, and realized that they didn't have a lock on the target. _What __**is**__ she doing, anyway?_ Then she heard Signum's voice.

-

"What, in all the worlds, is _that_?" breathed Signum.

She had been using her Afterburner to intercept the target. Right as projected, she had made visual contact. As she had approached, he had slowed, stopped, and floated stationary. She had cut off her propulsion spell and flown up almost to melee range to see him simply staring, listlessly. Before she said a word he had turned to her, turned back to the southwest, and pointed a finger. She looked, and was stupefied. She didn't even notice Hayate's comm window open next to her.

"The Eye: that horrible growing sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh, and to see you: to pin you under its deadly gaze, naked, immovable."

Signum snapped back to life, memories of her time reading books in Hayate's home coming back to her. "Tolkien?"

"Can you think of anything more appropriate?" replied her former master.

Back some miles, probably above the base camp, up in the clouds, was a giant pink . . . eye. It had to be nearly a quarter mile wide. In the sky, from where they floated, it was a big as Earth's moon would have been. Signum turned north and noticed an ever-shrinking and ever-brightening 'spotlight' of pink fade into view over the mountains as more and more of the light fell directly on its intended recipient. She could almost feel the sheer power of the scrying magic washing over her- or at least she hoped she did. It was that, or simply the regular old feeling of being watched.

The armored man floated for a few more seconds, then raised his hands slowly.

"We've been at this game all week. I've apparently sorely misunderstood just how badly you all want me. Badly enough to cast scrying magic powerful enough to vibrate dimensions, it seems. I don't know who you all are, but I definitely do not want to fight whoever is willing to toss around power like that. I surrender. Take me to the Emissary, and I'll give my oath that I will plague your world no more."

Signum was about to respond, then clenched a fist and frowned. _She did it again._ Her wings of fire flared from orange, to blue, to white.

"Hey, wait- I surrendered. What are you doing? What did I say?" He held up his palms and started to float backwards slowly.

* * *

Ok, that took longer than I thought. One day after the previous chapter I typed up this to the point that Shamal casts a spell . . . and stopped for 6 days. Came back, finally figured out how to frame that scene, and plowed on forward. Boom, rest of this chapter up. Then I try to upload it and run into problems again. Fun fact: this chapter's climax was the silly scene that popped into my head that inspired me to start this thing up in the first place. Part of why I stopped where I did was because I couldn't move on to the next step without having a general idea of where I wanted to be a few more steps down the road, so I outlined the end of the story. Now that I have a direction to move again I can make progress.


End file.
